The Rise of Ra Ozymandias

“… On the great desert isle of Horai, the land is ruled by a wise, but cruel ruler, who has ruled for a century.
His chosen name, as his true name have been lost to mortal men, is Ra Ozymandias.
In his younger years, he was a mere advisor of the Tri-Khan of Chiaroscuro, but soon enough, he became hungry for power.
In his search, he learned many terrible secrets, including the knowledge of how to wield sorcery, and soon, he had gained enough power to challenge the Delzahn court shaman, making himself as the Tri-Khan's chief aide in matters of sorcery and spirits.
However, it wasn't long before the influential exalts of the Delzahn Horde learned of this upstart, and by force, they entered his sanctum and separated him from his powerful tomes and artifacts.
He was forced to flee, and no a soul cared to follow him, powerless as he were. But, the ambitious Ozymandias was not defeated. In time, he came to the great desert-isle of Horai, situated in the south-western ocean.
There, he lived the life of a hermit, recreating what had been lost to him. Through cunning and memory, he recreated his work, and soon, he could call on the forces of Hell to aid him in his plans.
That was forty years ago."

CONQUESTThe three kingdoms of Horai, which consisted of the three tribes, the sea-going Agnai, the nomadic Arramids and the proud Arxians.
All of them were defeated in the less than a year.
The Agnai were the first to fall. They fell to the schemes of Ozymandias, as he whispered sorcerous words of power to the patriarchs in power, creating distrust and envy. Within days, the feuding families had through a bloody vendetta, reduced each other strength to next to nothing, leaving them wide open for an attack. The sorcerer and his demonic warriors forced their way into the palace of the Anax, and slew everyone in it, blood and screams filling the pristine courtyards.
When the Agnai fell, the survivors of their noble houses that weren't dragged back to Hell by the demons, were sold to the enterprising Guild merchants that were returning to the ports after the débâcle, eager to turn a profit on the horrors of war.
After this conquest, Ozymandias eagerly sat his gaze on the next kingdom.
The Arxians had heard of the defeat of their rivals, and took measures to protect themselves from the vile spells of Ozymandias, forcing him to change his tactics.
In what was later referred to as “The Night of the Lambs”, every grown woman left in the Agnai cities was dragged out of their beds, to be slain on the sacrificial altar.
With those lives, Ozymandias bought the services of hundreds of demons, and most importantly, it allowed him to summon the great demon princes, Octavian and Gervesin. With the first, he laid low the walls of the three Arxian cities.
Aided by the second, he tore a line of murder through the ranks of the Arxian soldier, finally breaking the will of the defenders as they saw their exarch being eaten alive by the Erymanthoi Blood-Apes. Once more, the few prisoners they took were either dragged back into Malfeas by the demons, or sold to the Guild as slaves. With his power over two kingdoms ensured, he began to conquer the last.
But, the Arramids, being nomads, were not truly a kingdom. They had a Amir that ruled them, but never a living one, as their crowned their most honored ancestor, and their nomadic ways made it difficult to actually destroy them, as one tribe might have been destroyed, but another had managed to hide itself in the dunes.
In the end, however, the forceful will of the sorcerer enslaved most of the Arramids, and the remaining tribes accepted him as overlord, bending their knee in fear of his power.
For decades, Ozymandias ruled atop the ruins of Horai, only gradually rebuilding what he had destroyed.
However, when the Scarlet Empire caught wind of the state that Horai was in, they weren't slow to take advantage. The House of Mnemon especially took an active interest in the Kingdom of the Sorcerer King, and after a few meetings, Ozymandias agreed to become a tributary to the Realm. In the sweltering deserts of the island, slaves were put to dig up whatever riches they could from beneath the dunes.
There, they found enough gemstones for the sorcerer to pays his yearly homage to the Empire tenfold. In the once-proud Agnaia port-city of Paleshear, the only true city left on the island, the sorcerer-king erected his first palace, and from there he could trade and barter his riches with both Dynast, Guild and Fair Folk alike.
In time however, Ozymandias realized that in spite of all his power, he couldn't live forever.

The Grand DesignSo, with great haste, he began a new project. He would harness the power of the dragon-lines of the desert, and create a grand structure in their nexus, which would become a manse of great power. Through years of his rule, the trade he had been the sole beneficiary of, had been good, which allowed the Sorcerer-King to begin purchasing slaves from every corner of Creation, as hundreds of them were needed for his great work. Both for construction and mining, but also for feeding and caring for his enormous host of these labourers. Not to mention, scholarly talented slaves were needed to assist with the geomantic calculations of the manse.

Of course, a throng of several thousands of slaves aren't known for being docile.
Ozymandias soon understood that his Arramid-born guards couldn't control all of them. It soon became apparent that men and women with nothing to lose was far more rebellious. He then gave them a offer, a simple way out. From divinations and hearsay, he elected to free the most devious and cruel of the slaves, and offered them a position in his guard. Of course, with their acceptance of this job followed perks. Food, wine and personal slaves.
However, you would have to work for them, as anyone better than you could rise up and take your place. And this with no retribution from the Sorcerer-King nor his henchmen. Eat or be eaten.
These rules became the facts of life among the slaves, just as food never was. You would have to steal, barter or kill for it, as the guardsmen were deliberately given large amounts of food for their own consumption, to either give to underlings or hoard as they pleased. The lowliest of slaves often either sustained themselves with mushrooms they had grown themselves, while farming-slaves would eat the millet they grew between the emmer and the wheat that they grew for their master.

In time, Ras created The Pits, where in little slave-cities arose, each of them lorded over by the most ruthless guards of each Pit. Any attempts at disloyalty or dissent was brutally crushed, both amongst the slaves, but also among the guardsmen, as most signs of betrayal would be eagerly reported by co-guards or ambitious underlings.
The only other way to escape the Pits were through the Arena.
Entertainment is as always, a essential part of life needed to bring stability. True to Ozymandias' twisted mind, he allowed for the best of the gladiators to join his personal cadre, thus freeing them from the Pits, and giving them access to the wonders of his palace, built across the river from the Pits. The crowd drawn to the bloodsports of the arena are either other slaves, spirits or merchants.
Most Dynasts on Horai are living in Paleshear and finds the whole spectacle a bit barbaric, although a young Dynast named Mnemon Halek, have often deigned himself to attend, and on occasions, even participate. When this happens, most gladiators have agreed to try and take him on when fighting as when a wolf-pack fights a bear, but no one has yet survived an encounter with the bloody-thirsty Prince of the Earth.
To get population to the Pits, most slaves are brought in by the sea to the port-city of White-shear, and then transported alongside the river Wau, passing the hundreds of slave-farms supplying the Pits, situated on the banks of the river. After twenty leagues of river, the Grand Palace of the Sorcerer-King comes in sight.
Built with the finest of Chiaroscuroan architecture, the King himself constructed it with the aide of demons, ten years after the conquest. Within it, Ra Ozymandias dwell in his realm of opulent luxury, pouring over scrolls and tomes of forbidden knowledge, awaiting the finishing of his great project.
On the other bank of the river, the construction site towers above everything else. For forty years, the project have been under construction, and is expected to be finished within the next decade. The structure is immense, with spires as tall as the great trees of the Far East. The stone for it's foundation was carved from the sands surrounding it. Great quarries once circled around the site, and now, those have been turned into the infamous Pits. Amidst those lies the great arena, where desperate slaves come to find either liberation, glory or death.

SPELLSInitiation: The Enlightenment of the Twisted Soul
- Insert story about the understanding found within the bitter sighs of the defeated Firstborn, and how the King-of-Kings understood as the words of Orabilis filled his ears of what true wisdom could grant him. Thus, he warped himself in search of unlimited power! -Shaping Rituals:
When the sorcerer seduces and sleeps with a willing mortal, she may choose to draw the soul
out of his body, leaving it an inanimate husk that soon dies of deprivation.
The extracted soul lingers invisibly around her, tethered to her by umbral chains. As a miscellaneous action, the sorcerer may burn out one of these poor souls in exchange for power once per scene, rolling (Essence + Willpower) and gaining that many sorcerous motes. She retains these motes until the end of the scene, and may spend them towards any spells she casts. Additionally, a bound soul may be reflexively expended in place of a point of Willpower when paying the cost of the sorcerer’s control spell. She cannot have more than (Essence + Occult) souls bound to her at one time.Sorcerous Merits:

Suzerain of the Inner Flames: Fire answers readily to the sorcerer’s will. Whenever the sorcerer casts a spell that creates or manipulates fire as its primary effect, or summons a fire elemental, its cost is lowered by three sorcerous motes. If it’s her control spell, she may also waive a single point of Willpower from its cost once per day.

Golden Ichor: Having incorporated yasal into their whole body, the blood of a yellow sorcerer becomes a vessel for spirits. They may treat their own body as a yasal crystal that cannot be lost or stolen. However, if more than half of their health levels are filled with lethal damage any spirit they have bound in themselves is automatically freed and they may not bind a new spirit until at least half their health levels do not contain lethal damage.

Magma-tail - A mighty Elemental situated in Ras' Yasal necklace, granting him Charms beyond the keening of most mortals. The spirit is absolutely devoted to Ras, for the freedoms given to it allows it a freedom few of it's kind knows, as The King-of-Kings created it. It considers itself as his foremost bodyguard and is the lover of Karatas ap Esha, and is loath to relinquish it's existence should Ras die.Benefits of the Magma-tail

Blazing Wing Flash (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Decisive-only; Essence 4): With a beat of its powerful wings, the garda bird sends burning feathers falling on its foes. This is a decisive attack rolled against up to three enemies within short range, dividing the garda bird’s Initiative evenly among all of them and doubling 9s on the damage roll.

Fiery Talon Strike (15m, 3i; Supplemental; Dual; Instant; Essence 3): The garda bird’s attacks burn enemies to ashes. On a withering attack, it does not add extra successes to its raw damage, but instead rolls them as dice of lethal damage against its enemy, which ignore hardness as they burn the enemy alive. A decisive attack adds extra successes to its damage.

Immolating Pyre (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Eclipse; Essence 4): Garda birds may call up an eruption of flame, forcing all enemies within medium range to roll against a hazard with the traits of a bonfire. Allies are unburnt, the flames washing over them harmlessly.

Defensive Charms

Fiery Terror Aura (8m, 1wp; Reflexive; One scene; Essence 4): While in its phoenix form, the garda bird may emanate a terrifying aura, subtracting one success from all attack rolls made against it. Characters may resist this aura for one scene by paying two Willpower. Characters with an Intimacy representing valor, courage, or a reason to fight fearlessly need pay only one Willpower.

Base: gains a Defining Principle of “All forbidden knowledge is mine to learn,” and gains half his Essence in dice to all attempts to entice others to learn dangerous or forbidden knowledge. This Intimacy disappears upon ending the attunement.
By paying up to five additional attunement motes, the wearer may further acquire a mutation with a Merit rating equal to the committed motes; such mutation may not be made Subtle, and once chosen cannot be changed; if the wearer releases the commitment, the mutation remains, but loses its mechanical effects - claws dull, star-strewn eyes dim, spines grow soft.

Evocations:Shadows LengthenCost: -; Mins: Essence 1;Type: PermanentKeywords: NoneDuration: PermanentPrerequisites: Terrestrial Circle SorceryThe robes of the Prince of Fallen Leaves were once an Artifact of great sorcerous power, drawing power from distant dream-worlds. Now that they are torn and ragged, their tainted Essence seeps into their owner’s acts of sorcery. Shaped Essence manifests visibly as inky blackness, and as more power is gathered their surroundings grows dark and their shadows animate.
The owner of the Tatters of the King may flurry shape sorcery actions with instill actions, as long as said actions focus on creating feelings or Intimacies of dread, awe, desire for knowledge, or fear of said knowledge. This does not require him to speak, but he must otherwise obey the normal rules for social influence. On a turn in which he successfully casts a spell, a flurried instill action does not suffer the penalty for multiple actions.

Black Stars Look DownCost: -; Mins: Essence 1;Type: PermanentKeywords: NoneDuration: PermanentPrerequisites: NoneSeizing hapless victim or fierce opponent alike, the Tattered King stares into their very soul, and his eyes fill with terrifying dreams and enticing nightmares.
When in control of a grapple, the owner of the robes may perform an additional action instead of the normal grapple; an instill action which focuses on creating feelings or Intimacies of dread, awe, desire for knowledge, or fear of said knowledge.
This does not require him to speak, but he must otherwise obey the normal rules for social influence. The -2 grappling penalty to Defense applies to the target’s Resolve.The Tattered King by Omicron

Incandescent LanceCost: 7m, 3i, 1wp; Mins: Essence 2; Type: SimpleKeywords: DualDuration: InstantPrerequisite Charms: Burning Coal Fist
Drawing on the geomantic power seething in the hearthstone, the Exalt sets her Essence ablaze and hurls it at a foe. This may take the form of a searing fireball or a roaring plume of flame, as desired. The character makes a (Dexterity + [Brawl or Martial Arts])-based unarmed attack at a target out to short range, with the benefits of Burning Coal Fist attached.